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Israel's Assyrian Exile

2 Kings 17

King Solomon ruled over a united Israel, but upon his death the nation was divided: 10 tribes in the north were known as Israel, ruled by Jeroboam, and the remaining two tribes in the south, surrounding Jerusalem, were known as Judah, ruled by Solomon's son, Rehoboam.

From 930 to 722 B.C., a succession of 19 kings ruled over the 10 northern tribes of Israel. In spite of the ongoing ministries of God's prophets during those two centuries—like Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea—the 10 northern tribes lived in disobedience to God's covenant. Second Kings 17 provides a detailed overview of all the ways Israel sinned against God, beginning with her king, Jeroboam: "For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them" (2 Kings 17:22). Israel's sins can best be described as a violation of the first and second of the Ten Commandments: worshipping other gods and creating images of deities to worship (Exodus 20:3-4; 2 Kings 17:12). Led by her kings, the Israelites built worship centers to the pagan gods that had been worshipped by the Canaanites and created a syncretistic religion—part pagan, part worship of Israel's God.

Instead of listening to God's prophets, the kings and people stiffened their necks and dug in their heels and persisted in their sinful ways (2 Kings 17:13-15). After more than two centuries of disobedience, God "removed [Israel] from His sight" by calling Assyria to invade the land and remove a large number of the people (Isaiah 5:26; 7:18). After a three-year siege, Assyria destroyed Samaria, the capital, in 722 B.C.

Those deported never returned. In their place, Assyria sent many of its own people to live in the captured land. Those Assyrians intermarried with Israelites that remained and became, in essence, the Samaritans referred to in the Gospel—a half-breed population despised by Judean Jews in Jesus' day (John 4:9).

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